stoeer



(No Model.)

Patented Aug. 30, 1892.

m: norms PETERS ca, PHOTO-LUNG. menmaram n.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JACOB J. STORER, OF EAST ORANGE, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNOR TO MARY L. STORER,OF SAME PLACE.

APPARATUS FOR TREATING THE REFUSE OF CITIES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 481,680, dated August30, 1892.

Application filed March 1 8, 1 891.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, JACOB J. STORER, a citizen of the United States, anda resident of East Orange, in the county of Essex and State of NewJersey, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Furnacesand Ap paratus for Treating the Refuse of Cities, of which the followingis a specification.

This invention is designed as an improvement on my furnace and processfor manufacturing fertilizers, patented to me in the United StatesJanuary 28, 1873, numbered 135,383, and March 18, 1873, numbered136,945; and it consists in some important improvements in theconstruction of the furnace, in matters affecting its durability andefficiency, and in combining with it certain necessary mechanisms foradapting it to the most effective and economical treatment of the refuseof cities, all of which will be hereinafter fully set forth.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part ofthis specification, in which similar letters of reference indicatecorresponding parts in all the figures.

Figure 1 is a partly sectional side elevation of my improved apparatus.Fig. 2 is a plan of the same. Fig. 3 is asectional view of the cylinderon line X X, Fig. 2.

The problem of treating the ref use-the garbage, ashes, andstreet-sweepings-of cities is much more complex than that of treatingthe refuse animal matter of slaughtering and packing houses and likeestablishments for conversion into fertilizers. The materials from suchestablishments requireno separation from each other and are all adaptedand utilized for fertilizers. The refuse of cities, on the other hand,embraces rags, paper, glass, tin cans and other articles of metal,partly-burned coal, and other substances which cannot be converted intofertilizers and which have special values of their own in variousmanufactures. For economically disposing, then, of a citys refuse thesecomponents thereof must be separated from each other and from the animaland vegetable components before the latter are dried or cremated; and asit is an object, especially in large cities, to have as fewgarbage-cremation Serial No. 385,500. (No model.)

stations or plants as possible, in order to economize room and to havethe work done as promptly and quickly as may be, in order to prevent anypossible accumulation of the refuse and to prosecute the work withoutoffense to the neighborhood and with economy to the city, it isrequisite that the apparatus should be simple in construction, durable,capacious, and capable of being operated chiefly with unskilled labor,and that the process shall absolutely prevent the escape of malodorousgases into the air.

In my patents-above referred to I describe a revolving cylinderconstructed of boiler-iron and lined with fire-brick or other suitablerefractory substan cc. That cylinder was formed of boiler-iron platesand was Very costly, and often as it became heated during the process ofthe manufacture of fertilizers it expanded to such a degree thatportions of the brick- 7o lining would become loosened and fall out,thereby rendering necessary a stoppage of the work and causingconsiderable expense and trouble, so that it became apparent thatcontinuous work in the fertilizer establishment could be assured onlybya duplication of the cylinder and accessories, so that one set couldbe used while the other was under repair.

My present cylinder A is preferably constructed of cast-iron incylindrical sections, flanged on their ends and bolted together, asshown at a. The fire-brick lining B is preferably made, as shown in Fig.3, with some bricks or rows of bricks projecting inward beyond theothers for the purpose of causing a 8 better agitation and distributionof the garbage, &c., within the cylinder when it is revolving for givingsaid garbage a more thorough and prolonged exposure to the hot air andflame passing through the cylinder. 9c When the projecting bricks of thelining are set in spiral lines, they serve to assist in the discharge ofthe dried or cremated material at the exit end of the cylinder. Thecylinder may be revolved by means of belt, chain, or 5 gear, preferablyby spur-gear, as indicated at O, and it is supported in position and soas to revolve with but slight friction by flanged friction-wheels d,fixed in suitable standards on the cylinder-supporting frame or piers Oand bearing against the peripheries of the cylinder-section flanges a,which are trued off for that purpose. At the feed end of the cylinder isthe fireplace or fuel-combustion chamber D, above which is fixed ahopper D, through which the refuse-matter is fed into the cylinderAasthe latter revolves. The lower or exit end of the cylinder is connectedbyaflue E with the gas mingling and combustion chamber E, located in thebase of the smoke-stack F.

In operating under the patents above referred to it was found that thedried material delivered from the cylinder into the receivingpitconstructed for its receptioncouldnot beremoved during the dryingprocess without great interference with the uninterrupted and continuousoperation thereof, as the opening of the door of the said pit for theremoval of its contents cut off the draft of the stack and caused asevere reaction or puffing of the flame, smoke, and gases from the feedend of the cylinder, with the efiect of endangering the safety of thebuilding and the workmen. To obviate this, I excavate beneath thesmokestack F a deep and narrow pit H, with the two sides that areparallel with the cylinder made perpendicular and with the other twosides sloped in opposite directions, the one f up to the lower edge ofthe exit end of the cylinder A and the other f forming an inclined planeextending up to the grounddevel in front of the smoke-stack. This pit Hmay be brick-lined throughout, and the upper portion of the inclinefforms the bottom of the flue E, through which the gaseous products ofcombustion escape from the cylinder into the gas-combustion chamber E inthe base of the smoke-stack, an arch f extending from the cylinder tothe stack, forming the top of said flue. The slope or inclinef also isarched over, so that it becomes the bottom of a tunnel L, whose exitisthrough the front wall of the smoke-stack at about the groundlevel. Thefiue E communicates with the gas mingling and combustion chamber Ethrough a suflicient opening 9, made in the smoke-stack. This chamber E,which occupics the base of the stack F, has for the floor of its ash-pitthe roof of the pit H, the bricks of the chamber-roof being so laid thatinterstices gsay three or four inches squareare left between them allfor the upward escape of the final products of combustion, theseinterstices being of ample aggregate area for such purpose. The saidroof is by preference made dome-shaped for the better radiation of heatinward and downward and for affording sufficient area for interstices oropenings 9 of the requisite number and dimensions.

When this apparatus is in operation, a good fire is maintained on thegratmg and the walls and dome of the chamber E are thereby kept at ahigh temperature. The heated gases and products of combustion andevaporation passing from the cylinder A into the heated chamber E theremingle and burn, their combustion and decomposition beinggreatlyassisted and accelerated by their brief detention, caused by theperforated dome, by the radiation of heat therefrom, and

by their passage through and contact with p the highly-heated walls orsides of the many dome-openings. The resulting products, deprived ofofiensive odor, pass out at the top of the smoke-stack. To prevent undueexpansion by heat of the cylinder A when in operation, I arrange aboveand in line with it a pipe 0, having many small perforations on theunderside. Water supplied to this pipe from a proper reservoir (not shown)will continuously drip on the cylinder, and by keeping it comparativelycool prevent it from expandiug to such a degree that the brick liningwill become loosened.

For the working of this apparatus a fire is made in the fireplace D andurged until by the entering flame the cylinder has become sufficientlyheated-say to a bright red or white heatthe cylinder being slowlyrevolved during this time that it may be heated more evenly. When thecylinder has become hot enough, the material to be dried or cremated isfed into it while it revolves through the hopper D. The time cccupied inthe movement of this material from the feed to the discharge end of thecylinder may be regulated by the inclination of the cylinder, the pitchof its interior spirals, or by the speed of its revolutions, or by allor any of these causes combined, and they are easily controlled, so thatthe material fed into the cylinder shall be sufficiently dried orcremated before it is discharged. The dried material or ashes dischargedfrom the cylinder fall down the incline f into the deepest part of pitH, whence it is best removed by the continuous operation of abucket-elevator P, that runs in the narrow tunnel L, and will deliverits contents into any receptacles arranged to receive them. Thus theoperation of the device, the introduction of the material into thecylinder, the discharge of the dried material or its ashes from thecylinder into the pit, and the removal of the latter from the pit may beconstant and continuous.

When establishing a plantfor treating city refuse, I erect a platform Qfor the carts bringing the refuse on a level considerably above the headof the cremating-cylinder A, and between the platform and cylinder andin combination with them I arrange suitable apparatus to facilitate theseparation one from another of the components of the refuse. In Figs. 1and 2 is shown an arrangement of screens, shaking-table, and chutessuitable for the purpose. From the platform Q the refuse dumped on thechute Q will fall into the capacious revolving screen Q which will havemeshes sufficiently large to permit the passage through them of theashes, coal, and all material of less than, say, from four to six inchesin diameter. What passes through the meshes of this revolvingscreenfalls uponthe finer flat screen Q and what passes through thescreen Q falls upon the still finer screen Q both of which are designedto be continuously shaken by means of cams or toothed wheels pp or byany other suitable mechanism. At each of these screens Q Q ,'I place oneor two boys, whose work will be to gather from them what coal, rags,iron, glass,

bones, and other merchantable articles may.

vegetable substances in this residuum. In

the meantime by far the greater portion of the animal and vegetablematter and the tin cans, metals, rags, paper, and larger bones will bedischarged from the lower end of the revolving screen upon the table R,at the sides of which will be a gang of men armed with hooks, who willpick out these merchantable articles and deposit them in convenientbaskets or other receptacles and push the residuum from the said tabledown into the hopper D into the cremating-cylinder A, where it will bedried or converted into ashes, as may be desired, becoming in eithercondition inoffensive to the nostrils and suitable for fertilizing orfilling land.

I do not confine myself to this special arrangement of screens, shakingtables and chutes, it being evident that they may be arranged in othereffective and equivalent ways.

Having thus described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secureby Letters Patent- 1. In a furnace and apparatus for treating the refuseof cities, the combination, with the revolving furnace and thesmoke-stack, having a gas-combustion chamber with a perforated roof inits base, sustantially as herein shown and described, of a pit with twoperpendicular and two sloping sides beneath said combustion-chamber,designedfor the continuous reception of the dried or cremated materialcontinuously delivered from the furnace, and an elevator forcontinuously removing said material from said pit, substantially as setforth.

2. In a furnace and apparatus for treating the refuse of cities, thecombination of a revolving screen Q a sorting-table R to receive thematerial passing overthe lower end of said screen, the shaking andsorting screens Q Q, arranged below said revolving screen to receive thematerial that passes through the meshesof the revolving screen,'and therevolving cylinder-furnace A, set below the lower end of thesorting-table R to desiccate or cremate the material passing over thelower end of said table, substantially as described.

3. In a system designed for the cremation of the refuse of cities, thecombination of suitable mechanisms embracing revolving and shakingscreens and shaking table for receiving and separating the componentparts of the refuse, mechanism for delivering the garbage into thecremating-cylinder, a brick- .lined revolving cylinder-furnace setnearly in a horizontal plane, a fire-box at the head of the furnace fordelivering heated air and flame into the interior of the same, agascombustion chamber with perforated dome in the bottom of thesmoke-stack opposite the lower end of the cylinder, a pit beneath thesmoke-stack for continuously receiving the cremated garbage as it fallsfrom the furnace, and an elevator for continuously removing the contentsof said pit, all arranged and operated substantially as herein shown anddescribed.

Signed at New York, in the county of New York and State of New York,this 11th day of February, A. D. 1891.

JACOB J. STORER. lVitnesses:

BYRONN L. WINTERS, EDWARD A. BALDWIN.

